Front end disk brake conversion, longfilds dont fit! (1 Viewer)

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BigR

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Jul 30, 2004
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Location
Napa, CA
I am in the process of swapping out the drum brakes on my 1970 fj40. I am also replacing the stock birfields with Longfields. The problum is the Longfield is about 80 thousands larger in diameter then the original Birfields that went with the drum brakes. Clearly I need to do some grinding but I'm not sure where. Can I remove some material from the Longfield, fromm the inside of the axle housing or both???:confused:
 
dont touch the longfield. grind out a bit on the inside of the knuckle top and bottom, where the bearing races are for the kingpins. Same deal as when youre doing a minitruck birf conversion.

-Dustin
 
Do Not Grind The Longfield!!!


The opening for the axle to slip into the housing is the spot you need to address...
 
Do you think I can get in there with a 4&1/2" angle grinder or tough it out with a Dremel with a small grinding wheel.
 
I used a 41/2 grinder when i swapped my truck to mini truck birfs, just be careful the grinder can remove alot of metal quickly.
 
You can get in there with a 4 1/2" angle grinder. I went though that process with my FJ45LV and I had to remove quite a bit, but I was going from "ball and claw" to mini truck birf's. I found that I needed to remove material from the bottom of the axle "mouth".
 
I had done a minitruck conversion when I first bought the FJ40, but when I installed 30 spl. Longfields I had to grind the knuckles some more. The first pic is after the minitruck conversion. The birfs had no rubbing whatsoever and for a time I had Newfields installed too. The inner surfaces were painted black to see where the Longfields would rub. The second pic was taken after the Longs were installed. The shiny part was the spot where I had to grind for additional clearance.

(a grommet was put on the axle seal to keep grinding dust from getting in)

Dave
before LF.JPG
after LF.JPG
 
um , you gonna need different knuckles and spindles too:rolleyes:
 
I think he's probably figured that out, pees...

the question was just about fitting the birf bell in the housing...
 
Well , he said he was doing a disc brake conversion and ifin he be usin the jt outfitters kit then he gonna be suprised if he be tryin to stuff those birf's in.


I was just thinking outloud. I made my own brif eliminator kit with dana60 axles.:)
 
peesalot said:
I was just thinking outloud. I made my own brif eliminator kit with dana60 axles.:)
Click to expand...



That is the only REAL Fing birfield eliminator...
 
CruisinGA said:
I think he's probably figured that out, pees...

the question was just about fitting the birf bell in the housing...
Click to expand...
Uh oh. I think peesalot hit it on the head. The original post does not mention a knuckle conversion.
 
Thanks for all the excellent advice. I will be breaking out the grinder tonight:\

As far as the Dana 60 conversion, The belated Butch of ButchBuilt brought up a very intersting point. The birfield gives you 8 points of contact where the Dana only 4. This the load is always displaced across two balls as oposed to one point on the dana. Something to think about. I takled to Bobby Long and he says he has not had a longfield returned yet dur to breakage.
 
I know 2 people who popped a longfield. Soo I don't know how true that statement was.
 
lowtideride said:
I know 2 people who popped a longfield. Soo I don't know how true that statement was.
Click to expand...


I have been at Bobby's when he had is Axle breaking machine and you can break them, but it takes a hell of alot of power to even scratch them. Booby stand by all his products and has never had a problem honering his Warranty...
 
BigR said:
As far as the Dana 60 conversion, The belated Butch of ButchBuilt brought up a very intersting point. The birfield gives you 8 points of contact where the Dana only 4. This the load is always displaced across two balls as oposed to one point on the dana. Something to think about. I takled to Bobby Long and he says he has not had a longfield returned yet dur to breakage.
Click to expand...




Not exactly sure what you are saying here.....with any of it....




I know people that have twisted off Long outers, and broke the birf. These were his pre-30 spline kits he offers now...


I am not aware of anyone that has broken a 30 spline inner, or broke the outer from one of these kits yet...



Hopefully you get your axle together.


Good luck!


-Steve
 
Kina (cruiserland) broke a long running 39.5s before tellico last year. The more I think about it. It was a 27 spline. So you are more than likely right. I if my foggy memory serves me correct. Deerborn popped a long on upper two last year....spine count was prob 27 but dont know for sure.
 
I agree that with Bobby's stuff you can achieve similar or = strength in the joint area but you still have the steering arm's , knuckle stud issue , and the hub's are not exactly stellar. So the real deal of switching to a dana 60 style outer relieves not only the steering joint issue but also strengthens the steering arm and hub area's . I personally went with a LC center chunk and grafted dana 60 outers to it and had custom inners made. Next time a hub breaks or the 6 piddly ass bolts holding it shear along with the two posts then I will smile and realize why I switched the outers to dana 60 stuff.
 
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